Monday, June 03, 2013

HACK Won't Always Be a Dirty 4-Letter Word

Ever since
Hollywood gave us War Games, the fear of cyber apocalypse has gripped America.
We’ve outlawed hacking to such an extent that if you’re shut down by a cyber
attack, or your data have been stolen, it’s a federal crime to even probe the
attacking computers, let alone disable them. Rather than educate and activate
our best and brightest hackers, we prosecute and
imprison them.

Businesses haven’t complained because they’ve never wanted
to fight back. You can’t prosecute the attackers even if you find them, and
admitting a breach may spook customers and even invite more attacks. So instead
of fighting, we’ve just quietly taken the punches, and wished it all away. But
wishing it away is like trying to reduce teen pregnancy by preaching
abstinence.

Two years ago I watched a TED audience cheer Ralph
Langner for exposing the Stuxnet worm that our government
developed to retard Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It was as if the US and
Israel had invented malware. Somehow, it was evil for us to use cyberspace to stop the
most vitriolic, warmongering fundamentalist on our planet from making nuclear bombs. Because cyber is “unconventional”,
we somehow consider it to be just as taboo to use as nuclear and chemical
weapons.

Meanwhile,
the NY Times reported this morning that, “Hackers
Find China is a Land of Opportunity.” Not only has China allegedly hacked
Google and Evernote to spy on
its citizens, but it has funded massive efforts to steal information valuable
to economies and national security. Attacks on our banks, utilities, and
defense contractors can be traced
back to units in the Chinese military. We even know what building they’re
in.

I do not advocate the theft of IP for economic gain, but as cyber war rages on around us, I predict that Americans
will come to appreciate that cyber operations can achieve our military and intelligence
objectives far better than bullets and bombs. Cyber weapons are faster, more
effective, safer, and orders magnitude cheaper than kinetic weapons. Stuxnet
penetrated where missiles cannot.

Indeed, the stigma associated with offensive cyber activity
is breaking down, now that cyber attacks have exploded in frequency and scale. The
banks are now asking the
Feds to join the fight, so DHS, FBI and NSA are trying to figure
out how to collaborate, without going to jail themselves for hacking or
disclosing classified data.

"America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on
cybersecurity… Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security
priority. "

- President Obama

This sea change presents great opportunities for startups to
build a new ecosystem of cyber capabilities that actively defend our nation, and support
our military and intelligence objectives. We’ve got the best security experts
in the world. New startups are enabling the exchange of threat data, using
honeypots to collect counter intelligence on foreign hackers, and deploying
HADOOP clusters to track botnets. They even develop exploits around newly
discovered vulnerabilities to deliver offensive payloads.

Over the next five years, our nation will embrace the
capabilities of American hackers to fight back in cyberspace, securing our
economy and our lives. Our Defense Department will need fewer bombers, missiles
and destroyers, leading to a Cyber Dividend that will fund healthcare,
education and debt reduction.

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Fine Print

The thoughts and opinions expressed herein belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Bessemer Venture Partners or any of its affiliates (“Bessemer”). The material here is written on the author’s own time for his own reasons, and Bessemer has not reviewed or approved the information herein. Any discussion of topics related to Bessemer or its investment activities should not be construed as an official comment of Bessemer.